And speaking of literacy, and its use in writing news articles about politics, let’s also agree that Bill Clinton did not actually “gaffe” or even go “off-message” when he referred to Gov. Mitt Romney’s “sterling business career” as a means of being gracious before attacking him. (His endorsement of temporarily extending the Bush tax cuts was a bit more off-message.)

We all understand that Clinton’s reputation for being uncontrollable is widely overstated — I can tell we all understand that because a line to that effect shows up halfway through both the Post’s and the Times’ stories on how uncontrollable Clinton is — so let’s not make it a self-reinforcing reputation by misrepresenting random stray comments he makes. Save the “Clinton is a gaffe machine” moments for when he says or does something really stupid, like flying around on Ron Burkle’s creepy sex jet or deregulating the financial industry. (Similarly, just because Joe Biden is frequently hilarious does not mean that everything he says and does is a silly mistake made by a funny clown.)

I am not calling for a high-minded focus solely on “the issues that matter,” because lots of dumb stuff “matters” to lots of people — Mitt Romney being an uptight rich guy is just as relevant as Barack Obama being a passionless former left-wing poser — I just get annoyed when ostensibly smart people write very seriously about things they know to be total bullshit. (Obviously cable news pundits are exempt from this “they should know better” standard because the vast majority of them are genuine idiots.)

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene

Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot

Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot

Slide 13

Airplane Contrails: Globalized transportation networks, especially commercial aviation, are a major contributor of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Photo of contrails in the west London sky over the River Thames, London, England.

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R.J. Sangosti/Denver Post

Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot

Fire: More frequent and more intense wildfires (such as this one in Colorado, USA) are another consequence of a warming planet.